


The Last Hog at Hogwarts

by mylevelance



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/M, Hux Has No Chill, M/M, stormpilot is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 16:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14622296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylevelance/pseuds/mylevelance
Summary: Rey is attacked by death eaters out in the open and Finn (kind of) saves her. Her life changes forever when he brings her to Hogwarts to (kind of) hone her natural skill. Ben Solo (kind of) tries to hate this scrappy girl from a home so different from his own. Finn (kind of) keeps his feelings for Poe quiet. Rose is (kind of) a teenage fairy godmother. When it comes to Ben, Rey needs a little help from her friends. Kind of.





	The Last Hog at Hogwarts

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a gift for my gremlin of a friend. She said that there's not enough Reylo hogwarts au and a few weeks later here this is. Also I'm still learning html so this is going to be direct word vomit format without indentations until I figure it out. Enjoy!

Ch 1: The Warthog and the Bear

When Plutt told Rey how to make a Patronus, she expected it to be a fox or a lion. Above her in translucent blue light shines a valiantly posing wart hog. The big dark things swarming above take off into the cloud cover. Must be a very scary warthog she thinks to herself. It prances in a circle, tusks up in the air.  
Suddenly a floating polar bear charges up to her celebrating warthog and Rey cries out,  
“Hey! Get away from my Patronus!”  
“I… am here… to save you,” a voice pants next to her, breathing fog into the cool night. It’s a boy about her age wearing a dusty leather jacket and holding his wand with a shaking hand as he catches his breath.  
“You can put that thing away, I handled it myself,” she says. The warthog is trying to greet the polar bear by rubbing its wrinkly neck on the bear’s haunch. The bear looks to be deciding between swatting it or greeting it back so she vanishes her Patronus. The boy follows suit.  
“You handled it?” he asks, a tad condescending for Rey’s taste but she’s used to it. She gestures around at the empty alley. He stashes his wand in his back pocket and offers his hand, “I’m Finn,” he shakes her hand enthusiastically and lowers his voice to a whisper, “You must be a wizard like me. What are you still doing out of Hogwarts? School started last week.”  
She is starting to hear the hint of an accent, American. She does her best to withhold judgement. He had tried to rescue her a moment ago.  
“I don’t go to Hogwarts. My boss got expelled and won’t let me go. Not that I could pay for any of it if I did. I still know a few defence spells. They come in handy walking back from the shop every now and then,” she says with pride. Finn seems to be doing some challenging mental maths. Rey picks up her toolkit from where she dropped it when the dementors descended. She is very glad she spelled it to stay closed or else her wrenches and potion ingredients would be all over the wet pavement.  
“Well…” Finn’s accent is more pronounced, “You could come with me check it out if you wanted. I got permission to stay back because I had trouble catching a flight so I’m sure they’d be fine if you joined in with me,” he says hesitantly. Rey stares at him blankly for a moment.  
“You would let me come with you to Hogwarts?” she asks incredulously. He backtracks, stumbling over his words,  
“I-I mean they might not let you stay and we would have to ask your parents first,” she scoffs at that, “But the train doesn’t leave until tomorrow. It would be fun to show you around, that place is insane,” he says looking past her.  
“I’d love to!” she says, already striding down the alley towards a fire escape ladder. He follows her with trepidation and reaches to hold her hand. She shakes it off immediately. She flicks her wand and the ladder clangs down to meet the pavement. “Give me 5 minutes and then let’s go.”

 

Ch 2: A Brawler

It’s peculiar to Rey how quickly she decided to stay at Hogwarts. She lived in a shack on top of Plutt’s building for so many years, but she found she just let it roll off her like rain on metal. 

On the first day, Finn led her around diagon alley to collect his supplies and he even offered to buy her a mech spell book she was eyeing. She refused because she could tell he only offered to be kind, not because he had the means to.  
They were greeted at the train by a very small, very green hairy man. It was the first non- human creature Rey had seen and she did not know how to act until he introduced himself as headmaster Yoda and she felt very foolish indeed.  
As soon as she saw the turrets of Hogwarts over the trees she knew she would move the earth to stay. That much space and that much green. She didn’t speak the whole way, entranced with the scenery. Finn was busy explaining her presence to the headmaster, who occasionally replied with a “Hmmm…” or a “Ha.”

Now they sit in his office, crouching under the low ceilings. It seems to Rey to be a cave carved out of the bedrock of the school.  
“Now…” Yoda trails off, formulating a thought, “A new student, sort her we must. Hat we have not. Burned it was. Solo, Solo; blame he is not to be,” Yoda says to himself. Rey is not particularly interested in the hat. She used to dream that she would be sorted into a house at Hogwarts. Plutt told her they were just to keep the students at each other’s throats instead of the ministry’s.  
“Hmm… hmmm…” he waves his cane around her hunched form, “hmm… hmm…hmm… ha!” Yoda concludes, startling Finn who hits his head on the ceiling. “You shall be Gryffindor. Brave, you were. Chivalrous, you seem.”  
The headmaster waddles to a bed, climbs in, and shuts his eyes. Finn shrugs and nods towards the door. They try to close the door softly.

Rey has a home. Finn helps her scrounge together a Gryffindor uniform from the lost and found. She charms a Slytherin tie in the Gryffindor colours and he helps her get the crest just right. She thinks he might look sad as he leads her to the Gryffindor common room, but he hides it away when she thanks him earnestly for bringing her.  
Finn is still wearing his leather jacket when he says goodbye to Rey. He claps a handsome young man he calls Poe on the back and wishes her luck. Then he’s gone and Rey can’t help feeling left behind.  
“Come in, come in,” Poe opens a door behind a portrait of a large woman who stares dreamily at Poe. “I’m head boy here so I can pull some strings for anything you need, just let me know.”  
Rey is reminded of the words of mobsters who come into the shop, hoping to get extra charms on their getaway cars, but she doesn’t feel threatened by Poe. The lounge is warmed by the fire and the colour scheme of Gryffindor repeated across couches and chairs and rugs. She sets down her small trunk, unsure of where to go.  
Poe smiles kindly at her, about to say something, when there’s a scuttle of claws, and around the corner comes a tortoise moving faster than Rey thought tortoises should move.  
“BB-8 where’ve you been buddy?” Poe scoops the tortoise up and lifts him to eye level, “If I find any more lettuce in my bed we are going to have a serious chat my friend,” Poe says sternly to the tortoise. Rey swears she can see a mischievous gleam in its small black eyes and it squeaks back at Poe as if in argument. Poe nudges his head to BB-8’s then sets him on the ground. He turns back to Rey to continue his earlier thought.  
This is of course when the latch on her suitcase breaks and her tools and jars and beakers clatter across the hardwood floor.  
“Blast it all,” she mutters and she digs out her wand from the deep pocket of her newly borrowed robe. She spells her belongings back into the trunk and makes sure to latch shut with a charm. Poe hands Rey her adjustable wrench which rolled under a table.  
“What,” a soft voice accuses, “is that?”  
The voice comes from beside Rey and she turns to defend herself. Descending the stairs rather gracefully, considering he dwarves the doorway, is a man swathed in darkness. Or at least it seems that way until he steps into the light of the common room and Rey sees a very tall boy with very nice hair, very nice eyes, and not a very nice expression.  
“What is what?” Rey replies, sizing him up. She knows a brawler when she sees one and she knows how to play fast and dirty to keep alive. Not that she thinks her life is in danger… yet.  
“I’ll let you two get acquainted,” says Poe diplomatically. Poe appears to have seen this behaviour before so she must be safe. Poe picks up her suitcase and starts up a set of stairs across from where the stranger stands.  
“That wand,” the dark-haired boy draws her attention back to him, “it looks like it’s made from duct tape and hope,” he snarls a little at the last word, voice deceptively quiet. Rey immediately feels defensive,  
“It works perfectly well; do you want me to test it out?” she says  
“What are you going to do? Turn my clothes into hand-me-downs?” he taunts. She holds her ground and raises her wand, thinking she just might make his clothes shrink to toddler size. He raises his wand as well. It’s black and intricately carved and she already expects it from him, although only meeting him moments ago. His expression, however, shifts from haughty to hateful and Rey realizes at once that this is not a brawler, this is a killer.  
Just then a petite girl pops out from the stairs Poe went into.  
“Solo, making the newbies feel welcomed as always,” she says. Rey was beginning to think she was the only British wizard in Britain. The boy shakes himself out of what ever had hold of him. He steps back from her, sizing her up once more. Then he wanders to one of the couches by the fireplace and gracefully flops down, if one could do such a thing. Rey still has her wand raised but he is studiously ignoring her, shoving his nose into a book entitled Handguide to Translocation Spells.  
Rey shakes the girl’s hand, noting the girl’s lion slippers and blue sheep pyjamas  
“I’m Rey.”  
“I’m Rose, nice to meet you! I’ll show you up to your room. You’re so lucky Finn is helping you out,” Rose sighs, “Top floor has the best view.”  
Rey is beginning to see how useful making friends might be in fitting in while she gets her bearings in this strange new place. She hadn’t known many kids her age in Jakku, it wasn’t the place a kid could survive. 

Rose leads her up a winding staircase to a room with massive windows overlooking the lake. Rose winks at Rey before she turns to go.  
“Let me know if you need to borrow any books or hear the hot gossip. I think you’re going to liven up this place a bit,” at Rey’s quizzical expression she continues, “A girl who’s got Ben Solo checking her out while he’s trying to curse her, has got to have some new tricks,” Rose says with a smile. “Don’t mind him though. He’s just mad he’s not in Slytherin. Burned the sorting hat this year when he tried to get re sorted and it made fun of him in front of the whole school,” Rey shudders to think what that would be like. Rose walks towards the door,  
“Dinner is at 6 pm… uh… I guess that’s 18 for you. Follow the crowd and sit with the Gryffs,” she waves enthusiastically and apparently leaves Rey to get settled.

 

Ch 3: Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts

Rey had no idea there were so many people in the castle. Sure it was a large building, but maybe she is so used to the empty rooftops over Jakku on the east side of London. She feels more relaxed now that she looks the same as the other students, still buzzing with anticipation a week into classes.  
She follows a horde of teenagers through a massive arched doorway into a cavernous hall. She would notice the floating candles, hundreds of chattering students, and ghosts carousing through the furniture later. Right now, all she could see was food.  
Heaps of fruit and jugs of orange coloured drink. Artfully arranged towers of sandwiches and platters of cheese. Not a single packet of Mr. Noodles in sight. Rey was close to tears looking at it all.

She could have had this, all of it, if Unkar Plutt shut the door when her father approached him in his shop. He often conveniently miscounted her earnings just as she ran out of food. Keeping her desperate enough to keep working, and paid enough to stay under his roof. Over his roof, really.  
Poe catches the way her face starts to crumple because he waltzes nonchalantly away from a riveting retelling of his own quidditch triumph. This rendition was a wildly embellished tale of when his broom was hit with a lightning bolt but he survived by jumping onto the broom of the other seeker, still managing to catch the snitch before tumbling to the ground. Other people always tell him he landed on his feet. He never corrects them.  
He brushes past her, softly instructing her to grab a plate and meet him at the top of the stairs. She doesn’t see him leave with his own plate. It seems odd to her that the head boy would take such a consideration for her. She tires to be unobtrusive, taking a sandwich and pouring a glass of the orange coloured drink. She leaves just as the students take their seats and quiet down by some signal unknown to Rey.

The stairs start as wide ballroom stairs. As she ascends three, then four flights, the spiralling stairs become narrow and dimmer. Her shoulders almost brush the rough stone walls. Eventually she turns a corner and there’s a door down a very long hallway. Rey stops in her tracks, forgetting her search for Poe.  
It is old wood with cracks running the length vertically and a black old fashioned oval door knob. The door seems to move closer the longer she stares at it. The frame looming above her, a rush of clammy air from the doorjamb. She leans forward, squinting as if to see through the door. A creak sounds within the room. Rey takes a step forward and-  
“Hey! We’re up here!” Poe shouts from above, startling Rey. She barely catches her drink before it sloshes. A narrow drop-down staircase descends in front of the strange door and she scampers up easily. She glances back at the door which pulled at her like a magnet.  
It was back to normal size and farther down the hallway than she thought. Perhaps a trick of the light, she thinks to herself.  
The stairs lead to the side of a platform on one of the support beams near the back of the dining hall. Finn, Poe, and BB-8 sit on the ledge with a few plates between them. She smiles when she sees Finn. He glances up, spotting her, and detangles his fingers from Poe’s where they rested casually between the plates. He slides carefully away from Poe and the food, making room for Rey.

The height doesn’t bother her. It feels better to have the loud students and excessive food far away and small. The sound from below travels up to their perch. A woman is addressing the room, voice volleying off the sconce walls. BB-8 is fed a cabbage leaf from Poe’s sandwich. Rey didn’t think she even saw cabbage on the tables below.  
“Good evening everybody. I’ll keep this brief before you kids dig into this delicious meal,” the woman perches a set of glasses on her nose and looks down at notes on the pedestal she stands at.  
“Who’s that?” Rey asks.  
“That is Leia Organa, she’s the potions professor and deputy headmistress,” Poe explains, “She pretty much runs this place until old Yoda crawls out of his cave to stir up trouble.” Rey pictures the funny old creature tripping students in the hallways with his cane. A cheer rises from the students and Rey re-focuses on the woman speaking.  
“- excellent achievements this week, Hufflepuff, what an interesting discovery…. Now onto the house of the brave; Gryffindor,” the table Rey took her meal from roars, “Ten points awarded to a Mr. Poe Dameron for an outstanding seeking on the quidditch pitch, the fastest seek time yet.”  
As the students below search to congratulate Poe, Rey sees Finn shift uncomfortably and cast a quick glance over the top of her head at Poe. He doesn’t seem to notice, intent on having BB-8 try a pepper slice.  
“As for cunning Slytherin,” a hush falls over the room and Rey figures this last house will determine the winner for the week, “Well done Armitage Hux! Your accomplishments in the Defence Against the Dark Arts have allowed the Hogwarts faculty to prevent future Basilisk attacks. Fifteen points to Slytherin,” Organa says with enthusiasm. Rey senses that Organa is not as thrilled as she lets on, although Rey can’t explain why she knows.  
The celebration of Slytherin is more reserved than that of Gryffindor. Hux must be the red-haired boy receiving sharp pats on the back as he glares loftily at the end of the Gryffindor table. Rey follows his glare too… there. Sitting slightly apart from the other students and looking positively joyless is Ben Solo.  
Just as Rey is convincing herself that she could not possibly be admiring his hair from so far away, he looks up. Right at where they’re hidden in the rafters.  
“Of course she would. Didn’t take them long at all,” a dejected voice says.  
“Of course she would what?” Rey asks Finn. He looks at her curiously, then spares a glance over her head to Poe.  
“I didn’t say anything, did you?” he says. Poe shakes his head then shrugs and holds up a sandwich.  
“I know I get a little weird when I get hungry. It’s all about the gains,” he says sagely to Rey. She can practically hear Finn’s eye roll without looking. They all tuck into the spread of food and Rey has never been more sure of anything. Free food and no job is the best charm she has ever cast. 

Thirty minutes pass. Ben Solo is still glaring up at them when Poe gathers BB-8 and leads them away.

 

Ch 4: It’s Lit Fam

Rey finds it easier fitting in at Hogwarts than any situation she’d been thrust into in the muggle world. She spends all of her meals with Poe and Finn and BB-8 in the rafters of the hall. On the weekends she watches quidditch matches, which she finds quite exhilarating, or she goes to the basement workshop. 

Rey loves her classes, finally putting her inquisitive nature to use. She’s a few years behind in divination, astronomy, and potions, but the professors are so wonderful that she doesn’t mind. Maz Katana plays tricks on the more boisterous students in divinations and Holdo is very understanding when Rey struggles with the star maps. Professor Organa is especially warm to Rey, even though she instills a healthy dose of fear in the younger wizards.  
Something about potions doesn’t seem to click with Rey. It could be that she was made to work in Plutt’s shop before she completed year ten. She only knew very basic muggle chemistry which was nowhere near as complicated as potions with real magic. Poe offers to tutor her, but she would rather struggle by herself through the problem sets, just like she always has. He assists Professor Organa in the lab and Rey pities the younger girls who stare after him when he helps them twist open “hard to open” jars.

Professor Organa’s twin, Professor Skywalker doesn’t seem to like Rey. It could be that during a lesson she threw a chair at an inferni before she remembered the firestorm spell. It did stun the undead creature enough for her to recall that they did not like light or heat, but Professor Skywalker did not see it as an innovative alternative.  
Charms however, Rey excels at. Manipulating magic around objects to make them better is something she’s done to survive since she a child. The professor is Han Solo, father of Ben Solo, she’s told by Rose in hushed tones. It’s odd to her that such an amiable man could raise such a mopey son. Though, what did she know about family relationships?  
Han is impressed with her ability to turn a fork into a weight bearing flying machine so she now spends most of her time after class working in his mechanical charms workshop. She likes trying to breakdown machines and rebuild them using magic to be more useful. She especially likes it when Professor Chewbacca commissions machines for the care of magical creatures class.  
The walk from the workshop in the depths of the castle dungeon to her tower top bedroom is grueling at the end of each day. The floating stairs are no help at all - always disjoining right when she gets to the top. On nights that she works past midnight, Poe sometimes flies down to the workshop on his broom and gives her a ride back up to the Gryffindor lounge. She doesn’t ask him why he’s awake so late with his broom in hand and he doesn’t offer an explanation.

The days grow shorter. October is almost finished and Rey is hard at work on an alternative to an electric fence to keep the blast ended skrewts from attacking each other. Her eyes are staining from hours fiddling with a little wire in the dim light of the windowless old cavern of a workshop.  
Her eyes begin to close and she rests her forehead on the stone workbench.

Then she’s standing in the doorway of a bedroom with a fire blazing in the hearth. Everything is basked in a golden hue and she knows it must be in the Gryffindor tower.  
“Just tell me what you need and it will be done,” she hears.  
It’s the back of Ben Solo, crouched facing into the fire. He is wearing all black up to his chin, Gryffindor colours discarded on the carpeted floor behind him.  
“So eager young Ren,” a voice says. A the hairs on the back of Rey’s neck stand up. That voice, coyling and soft. And horrible. Why does he care about a wrench? Rey thinks to herself.  
She cranes her neck around the door jam. “You must learn to control your emotions if you are to be any use to me at all.”  
Ben bent his head low, slouching his shoulders.  
“I swear I will prove myself worthy of your consideration,” Ben says.  
“You know there will be dire consequences if you fail. Kylo Ren snuffed out before you come into your true power,” the voice snarls. Ben leans back as the flames spit towards him. Rey catches a glimpse of the fire and she slams a hand over her mouth.  
Made from the hearth fire itself is a bulbous head, narrowing to an unnatural point. The eyes are sunken pits and craters warp the skull. Rey is frozen to her spot, hand muffling her gasping breath.  
Ben leans back towards the fire as it calms back into the confines of the hearth.  
“What I need from you is proof that you can deliver. Associates will arrange a package to be transported in three days time. Further opportunities will become available if you succeed,” the voice instructs. Ben nods curtly.  
“If you can manage full transportation of the party I see you will rise above these weak willed professors and simpering children. You have greatness within you, Kylo Ren, only darkness can unleash it.”  
The fire goes out so abruptly that the room glows blue. Ben sits back on his heels. Rey can’t see his face but she sees a shiver wrack his spine. She doesn’t want to see the aftermath of whatever toll that creature takes on this boy. She hardly knows Ben and hardly likes him.  
Rey eases back from the doorway. A floorboard creaks as she backs into the hallway.  
Ben whips around sharply, eyes locked on hers. Just as his face contorts from fear to rage, she is whisked away to a black place.  
The last thought in her mind before she wakes; who is Kyle Wrench?

 

Ch 5: Major Key

Rey is installing the fence in the meadow behind Chewie’s dwelling. She put the skrewts to sleep with a spell Chewie wrote down for her. She could barely understand him when the workshop was quiet but earlier Han was welding and Chewie’s english is heavy with a Shriwook accent. 

Rey drags the unconscious scorpion-like bodies to opposite corners in the open field, stopping for breaks often. Her hair keeps getting in her face so she ties it back in three buns. Rey is nervous that her fence won’t be tall enough to contain them and Chewie never mentioned whether they could jump.  
She is planting the first post the old fashioned way, with a mallet and lots of effort, when the breeze dies.  
“Need a hand?” a soft voice says from behind her. She wheels around, automatically swinging the hammer. Then she recognizes the voice.  
“Wait-” the yell dies on her lips. The mallet passes right through the torso of Ben Solo. She drops the handle with a thud in the grass. Rey closes her eyes and sits down quickly. Bringing a water canteen would have been a good idea, you’re just dehydrated, she thinks to herself.  
“Yeah I know,” Ben says with an exhale and she cracks open one eye. He crouches beside her, grass bending beneath his knees, “I fell asleep and now I’m here,” he says.  
Rey looks at him fully. The sun makes his hair look like flowing chocolate and she immediately regrets looking up. Ben is wearing a black cotton shirt and black flannel pants. The towering black cloud is in his jammies.  
“What do you mean now you’re here? Didn’t you cast any spells to get here unnoticed?” Rey asks.  
Ben shakes his head and leans back to sit in the grass, copying her crossed legs position. He has no shoes on.  
“Maybe someone cursed you in your sleep?” she knows it’s the wrong thing to say as his shoulders curl down.  
“I’m already cursed,” he mumbles to himself. 

If he really did it by accident in his sleep, perhaps that is what she did as well. Rey figures the Gryffindor tower must have some kind of magical overflow.  
“I guess it happened to me too so whoever made it happen did it to us both,” she says. Ben leans forward intently.  
“That was you in the hall the other night?” he says. His voice is getting louder. Rey spares a glance at the prone skrewt not ten meters from them. She tries to speak calmly.  
“It was an accident. I wasn’t trying to spy on you, it just happened,” Rey says.  
“It just happened?” he’s yelling in her face now. Suddenly they’re both on their feet. “It just happened that you checked in on me when I put dozens of charms to keep spies out. It just happened that my father’s star pupil,” he spits, “knows exactly when and where to go so Han Solo can be a hero and ruin everything!”  
She is backed up against the post she hammered in minutes ago. Rey knows it’s not in deep enough to bear weight if he steps closer. She wiggles her wand from her back pocket and holds it up between them. It has too much duct tape to look intimidating. On the other hand Ben’s brown eyes are like fire. He looks dangerous, even in his jimjams.  
“I swear Ben,” she starts and his nostrils flare,”I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything.”  
It’s a lie, they both know it. Her London accent is beginning to sound so foreign to her ears, surrounded by all these Americans. Ben takes a slow breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth.  
“If you tell anyone what you did or didn’t hear I will make things hard for you and your friends. I’m sure Slytherin would enjoy learning how your friend Finn has been spilling secrets to the enemy.”  
He leans further into her space and she tries to step further back. The post gives way. She reaches for Ben’s shirt as a reflex. Her hand passes through him and she barely has time to stick an arm out to break her fall.  
She looks up to a field empty of Bens and full of waking Blast Ended Skrewts. Brilliant. 

Rey works frantically to set up the wire fences before the skrewts wake up. She is fastening the last length to the last post when the skret in the pen strats flicking its scorpion tail back and forth.  
Rey stops in at Chewie’s dwelling to let him know she’s all finished. He asks her if anything went wrong because her hands are shaking around a cup of tea. Rey offers a weak smile and assures him that the skrewts gave her no trouble. With a promise to return soon, Rey leaves the tall hut before he can spot her dread.  
The tool kit grows heavier with every step towards Hogwarts. She was used to people trying to push her around to get their way, especially Plutt’s crowd in quiet alleys and the back of the store. She could risk herself because she knew she could protect herself.  
Rey hasn’t thought very much about why Finn never wears Slytherin colours and never sits with his house. It’s not hard to see now that there is probably a good reason to take so much trouble. He never talked about it and she thought it didn’t worry Poe so why should it worry her? She promised herself that she would find out what Ben has on Finn before he hurts her friend.

Rey spends the evening testing out shrinking spells on her toolkit to make it lighter to carry. It is just past midnight when she perfects a charm to shrink tools once placed inside but not the box itself. Rubbing her eyes she tears another section of duct tape to wrap around the fraying tape holding her wand in two. It truly looks pitiful, a crooked stick Plutt bought dirt cheap third hand. It’s her wand though and no matter what Ben Solo had to say, it suited her just fine.  
There’s a knock on the steel door. She winds through the tables with various metal parts to open the door quietly, Han is passed out on a couch in the big machinery section.  
Poe stands with his broom looking perfectly roguish in the dark basement hallway.  
“Need a ride?” he says with a half grin.  
“That would be lovely,” Rey replies. She zips her grey shop jumpsuit up to her chin. Poe brings the broom sideways and swings on. She takes his shoulder and settles behind him.  
“Which way tonight? Loops or up?”  
“Up please.”  
He leans forward and they are off. Poe flies them along the hallway, taking right angle turns which make her stomach flip. They shoot up seven flights of stairs until the main floor.  
“Door,” Poe says over his shoulder and Rey points her wand at the door and whispers an Aberto to fling it open.  
They are in the night sky. The cool air buffets in her hair when she raises her face to the stars. They soar above the still lake and Rey can’t help the grin that breaks across her face despite her exhaustion. Poe guides them back over the main building to the Gryffindor tower. They fly vertical up the turret and she clings to the broom behind him. At the top they slow to a stop.  
Poe chivalrously hops off to help her onto the slanted roof of the tower. She giggles and he bows exaggeratedly. Poe grabs the broom and they walk carefully to the skylight which she always leaves propped open. They jump one after the other into Rey’s room, landing softly on her bed. Poe starts moving off the bed by the window.  
“Wait,” Rey says. He pauses, sitting back on the edge of her single bed.  
“What is it hon,” he says softy, seeing her anxiety.  
“Why doesn’t Finn like his house?” she asks.  
“Are you up for a sordid tale?”  
“Always,” she’s whispering, unsure if she really needs to know. Then she remembers Ben’s threats.  
“Well this isn’t really my story to tell, but I’m sure you’ll find out one way or another. Anyway he was a latecomer like you. Just last year in fact. At first he seemed happy with his house, he was a friendly guy and even the Slytherins could get along with that. He wasn’t exceptional at any subject in particular, which was good because I’m sure Hux would have either sunk in his claws or try to take him out,” Poe says, frowning.  
“Hux, like that twat who’s always glaring at you?”  
“Yeah that charmer. So then one night Finn overhears how Hux and some of his buddies are going to temporarily blind me so I can’t seek in the next quidditch match,” Rey gasps, “I knocked him off his broom in the last match and I think he was really embarrassed about it. Hux had help from a Hufflepuff girl named Phasma who was going to drop their potion in my drink at dinner the night before. “  
“What happened?” Rey says, horrified and engrossed.  
“At dinner, this blond chick I’ve never seen before comes up to me and starts chatting about butterbeer and how Hufflepuff has a secret blend I should try. She’s about to hand a cup to me when this Slytherin boy smacks it out of her hand and it goes flying across the hall. God he must have been running or something because he keeps going and falls on her and they both go down,” Poe smiles warmly at the memory, “So she cusses him out then runs off. That’s how Finn and I met actually,” he says with a chuckle.  
“Is that why you guys don’t eat in the hall?” Rey asks.  
“Part of it, at least. Anyhow Finn tells me what Hux was planning to do. Hux and I go way back so I know he’s not just going to give up so I make sure to keep a crowd around until the match. Right before, he and his buddies try to ambush me outside the Gryffindor quidditch room. I have another kid wear my uniform and stand with my broom, then I hex them to the spot and make them grow giant mustaches and talk in these exaggerated spanish accents.”  
Rey’s eyebrows shoot up. Poe scratches the back of his neck self consciously, she’s never seen him use that particular gesture before.  
“I think I must have been still a little sore from when he told me the only good wizards come from England. That’s where his nickname Senior Hugs comes from actually. Anyway Hux finds out what Finn did and has made his time with Slytherin really hard. No one is allowed to talk to him or their head boy will rearrange their room to the one without a roof. Don’t ask me why they have that, it’s just one of those Hogwarts things,” he raises his hands as if to say ‘not on me’.  
Rey feels sad that even with magic and power, wizards can be just as hateful as muggles.  
“He can't sit with them because they don't treat him like a person,” she says thinking aloud. Then something occurs to her, “Do they know you guys... spend time together?”  
“Yeah I think so. We try to stay off the radar but it gets hard sometimes as head boy.”  
“So they already know where Finn is, they already know he could be telling their secrets to you.”  
“I mean yeah, that's probably part of why they're still excluding him. Why do you ask?”  
Rey is pretty smug about this. Ben had nothing to threaten her with, there was no reason she couldn’t let someone know about this Kyle Wrench and the creature in the fire.  
“Just curious,” she says.  
“I gotta go, practice in the morning and I have a feeling we’re gonna have some technical difficulty a la Slytherin,” Poe says, punctuating with a yawn.  
Rey checks the hallway for anybody who might spot Poe. Wiith a gentle fistbump, he’s off into the night.

Her dream begins walking up stairs in the great hall. It’s dark and she runs her hand along the wall. She can’t stop, she doesn’t want to turn around. Her gaze is locked forward as she ascends. She reaches the hallway where usually a drop down staircase would be waiting. Instead it is empty, there is just the door at the end of the hall with cracks running up the length. A red light glows through, appearing like spidering veins. Rey doesn’t want to go in, she wants to pull out her wand and toss her patronus aloft. Her feet are still moving and the door looms above her as she draws closer, two times, then three times her height.  
Rey’s hand is outstretched for the oblong handle and the door creaks open before she touches the handle.  
Her eyes snap shut against a red glare. It softens to a gentle yellow then dark. Her feet no longer feel warped floorboards, but smooth cement. She cracks her eyes open slowly.  
This room is lit by a few wide candles in each corner of the floor. There’s a buzzing noise above her head and she looks up.The ceiling is two stories high and floating five meters above the floor with crossed legs is Ben Solo.  
The first thing she notices after the floating is that he is not wearing a shirt. Rey shivers to think of how cold it must be, certainly not of appreciation. One hand is stretched splayed facing the floor, muscles shaking with strain. The other hand holds his black ornate wand. After she notes how feral his hair looks slicked back, for observation purposes she tells herself, Rey makes out the source of the low pitched buzzing.  
Camouflaged by the gloom of the night above Ben, is hundreds of swarming things. Red light streaks out of his wand and Rey sees a flip of a purple wing and the flash of a key fall to the floor. There is a layer of keys and wings beneath Ben which she at first mistook for a rug. What on Earth is he doing, she wonders and creeps closer.  
Rey catches a glimpse of Ben’s face as his wand reaches out to shoot another down. His eyes are closed, what is the point of shooting blindly, she thinks to herself.  
Ben’s wand glows red as if to send off another spark, but then it glows brighter until she looks away. There is a sound like forking lightning then sound like rain on her shelter’s tin roof in Jakku.  
She peeks back up at Ben. He is inspecting his wand with awe. While he runs his eyes along the carved black wood he spots her. Rey gives a little wave, even though he displayed great power, she’s not afraid of him. He can’t hurt her if he tried. Which he did.  
Ben closes the hand facing the floor into a fist and he drops gracefully out of the air.  
“How did you even get in here?” he says in a harsh whisper.  
“How did you even get to the meadow?” she retorts, petulance in her tone.  
Ben throws up his hands in frustration and Rey gets distracted by his unexpectedly sculpted torso before he gets back to being awful.  
“This has never happened to me before so it’s clearly your problem. Fix it,” he says bluntly.  
Rey almost can’t believe her ears. But she has past interactions to base her opinion of him. She raises her voice to speaking,  
“Clearly you’re the one who can’t control his own target practice,” she gestures to the floor, littered with hundreds of keys, “Although wanton destruction seems more your style.”  
Ben’s shoulds sag, she’s hit a soft spot.  
“I didn’t to this on purpose,” he says. Rey swears she hears a hint of remorse for accidentally killing a swarm of creatures. She puts aside her curiosity for the moment.  
“Whatever it is you’re mixed up in, you should tell someone-”  
The door behind her slams open.  
“Ren it’s your lucky day,” a voice says. It’s English and posh and male and annoying. Rey’s stomach twists as she turns to face him. Armitage Hux, in full Slytherin uniform despite the hour, walks right past her. His usual pale grimace twists a little more in disgust at the mountain of flying keys.  
“What do you want Hux?” Ben says, crossing his arms over his bare torso in discomfort. He shoots a quick glance at Rey. She meets his eyes and gives a sharp shake of her head. He shrugs slightly and refocuses on Hux.  
“Master Snoke just told my father that you are to teach me the translocation spell just in case you can’t execute,” Hux says, punctuating every syllable of the last word.  
“I don’t believe you,” Ben says.  
Hux flattens his mouth into a shape Rey identifies as a grin. With great exaggeration, Hux produces an unnecessarily long wand. It’s even embellished with silver and it must have cost more than a car. Hux whispers a spell under his breath and the tip glows blue. After a few moments, a hologram appears in the air above them  
It’s that horrible creature from the fire, just its head magnified to ten times life size.  
“Bredol Hux. Your son is to acquire the translocation spell from Kylo Ren for the December event. Should Ren falter, your son is required to complete the spell while the guards are weak. I’m sure he will not accomplish this otherwise, be sure to inform him of the exact time and location. It is in your best interest that he complete this simple task,” Snoke says.  
The hologram abruptly cuts off. Ben looks positively murderous. Hux is altogether too proud to have that deformed lump call him a weak wizard, but Rey supposes he’s already fairly delusioned to go along with it in the first place.  
“You can teach it to me down by the lake tomorrow after dinner. I’d like to have time to prepare to step in when you fail,” Hux says. He tries to look down his nose at Ben, but it doesn’t quite come across as condescending as Ben physically towers over him. Hux marches out with a flourish of robes, boots crunching wings as he leaves.  
Rey observes Ben warily. Hit eyes shut as the door slams. He takes a few deep breaths through his nose, shoulders hunching in.  
Then he is roaring like a beast and kicking piles of winged keys. Rey backs out of his way as he tears across the room, throwing the most terrifying hissy fit she has seen since she scratched Plutt’s car.  
After a few good yells and kicks Ben seems to calm down. Chest heaving, he sinks down to the floor beside her. Rey’s buns press uncomfortably into the wall.  
“You don’t have to do this alone,” she says quietly, “I can help you figure this out. Or you can talk to you parents-”  
“And what would they do?” Ben says. She faces him to find his eyes burning into hers. It is so surreal to see Professor Organa’s eyes becoming shiny with despair.  
“They’re your family, they’re supposed to help you get out of bad situations. They’re supposed to love you and help you clean your messes,” she says. He scoffs,  
“Must have been so tough, living with people who see you and not just what you’ll accomplish,” he says dismissively. Rey works very hard to resist rolling her eyes.  
“Alright so my parents didn’t overvalue my potential. But that certainly did not stop them from selling me off as free labour to a pawn shop wizard in the slums of Jakku to get their next hit. That certainly did not stop them from walking away from their seven year old girl and never once looking back,” she reigns in her emotions before she gets carried away, “Believe me, if you want to play whose parents are worse, I win every time.”  
Rey goes to wack Ben on the arm good naturedly, forgetting about her intangible state. Her hand lands on his should with an audible thwack. They freeze in place, matching expressions of shock. His skin is hot under her cool hand.  
Ben moves first, reaching to inspect her hand and-  
Rey sits up in bed, hand stinging.

 

Ch 6:Flying Purple People Eater

Rey finds classes the next day challenging. Even though she slept peacefully after returning to the Gryffindor tower, she still dozes off during Muggle Studies with the animatron C3-P0. Supposedly he retains more information that a regular professor in order to teach the course comprehensively. Unfortunately not even his shiny gold exterior can keep the attention of the students as he drones on about fiefdom in medieval times.  
In Potions, she confuses hornroot with scornroot, creating a ghastly brown goo instead of the clear liquid. Having Professor Organa sigh in disappointment, surrounded by younger students far more proficient than her, doesn’t upset Rey as much as knowing she has a secret about the professor’s son and not knowing why she keeps it. 

The trudge up from the workshop takes twice as long as a usual night without Poe. Her feet drag over every step. Professor Skywalker visited Han in his workshop that evening so Rey tried to keep her distance while simultaneously torturing herself over whether to tell them about Snoke and his task for Ben. She burnt the sleeve of her jumpsuit three times with her welding torch before she decided to call it a night.  
She is passing the grand hall when she hears footsteps pounding down stairs. Rey looks up just as Finn rounds the corner. He is wearing his leather jacket and swears when he spots her.  
“Start running now Rey!” he yells as he makes it to the ground floor. She stays put, about to ask him what for. He simply grabs her arm and takes off at a sprint.  
“Hey!” she says, shaking her arm out of his grip. She keeps up with him as they pound over the cobblestones. Then she hears it; the sound of hooves on the stone.  
Finn suddenly yanks her sideways through a swinging door. It's a poorly lit women’s washroom, Cavernous like most of the rooms in the school and fully tiled unlike most of the rooms in the school.  
“What is that?” Rey whispers.  
“Thestral,” pants Finn, “A real mad thestral. It’s like this scary death horse. Picture skeletor mixed with pegasus,” he says. Rey can only think of fluffy happy flying ponies.  
“I didn’t see it, was it flying or something?” she asks. Finn looks away.  
“Only people who know death can see them. Anyway they’re supposed to be tame. I know they’re carnivores but last I checked they didn’t eat people,” he says.  
A shadow passes over the fluorescent light. Rey squints into the space above the light fixture, trying to spot the unidentified flying object.  
There, above the mirror on the opposite wall is a teenage girl in an outdated Slytherin uniform, her hands on her hips and her feet dangling loosely. She looks very cross.  
Finn smacks is hand to his forehead, groaning.  
“Venice the Menace,” he explains quickly, “She died here in the 90’s when a Gigantic White Worm came up the shower drain, it was before all the underground guards we put up. Apparently she gets mad when boys come in the girls washroom, always ranting about girl power or something.”  
“Intersectional feminism actually,” the ghost corrects as she floats out, “And you’re right, i don’t like it when men invade women’s privacy,” Venice the Menace says.  
The ghost shoots across the room until she is inches away from Finn who cowers against the door. She opens her mouth and Rey is about to whip out her wand. Then Venice the Menace just starts shrieking.  
Rey and Finn cover their ears and make a speedy exit. The hall looks empty to Rey, but Finn swears and throws a Stupefy spell over his shoulder and drags Rey down the hallway. The screaming must have helped the Thestral find them. The clacking of hooves on cobblestone pauses when the Stupefy strikes true. Rey hopes that maybe it’ll stay stuck while they get help. They run further into the school. They reach a narrowing in the hallway and Finn checks behind.  
“It’s in the air, it’s gonna catch us in no time,” Finn pants.  
They round a corner and find themselves at the stairs leading up to the Gryffindor tower. Rey stops running.  
“What are you doing?” Finn yells, continuing onward.  
“We have to stop it before it hurts somebody,” Rey says, readying her wand. Finn shakes his head and stays back.  
“It’s here, in the air about halfway down the hall,” he offers.  
Rey throws a knockback jinx in the direction he points.  
“Missed it,” Finn says. This is it. Rey is about to be eaten by a horse that she can’t even see. She holds her wand up, trying desperately to remember Professor Skywalker’s defense lessons.  
“I got it,” a girl says behind them.  
It’s Rose, emerging from the Gryffindor tower in her pyjamas, lion slippers snarling ferociously. Her hair bounces on her shoulders as she walks to face the Thestral. Head held high, her gaze is locked on something in the air. Rose throws a series of Stupefy spells, each one in a different spot as the Thestral dodges.  
One strikes true Rey assumes because there’s a thump and the ground reverberates.  
“Thank god. Rose you saved us!” Finn exclaims and hugs her. Rose wraps her arms around his middle tightly, closing her eyes and breathing deep. After a moment Finn extricates himself and claps a hand on her shoulder.  
“You got mad skills,” he says solemnly, “I’m sorry for your loss though, was it recent?”  
“My twin actually, car crash. It was a while ago though,” Rose fiddles with a necklace hidden by her flannel.  
“Mine was a good friend. Turf war back in Chicago three years ago. He’s the reason my foster parents sent me here actually,” Finn says. They’re all silent for a moment.  
“How did it even get in here?” Rose asks. Rey is curious as well. Supposedly Hogwarts is protected from errant monsters wandering in.  
“I have no idea. I was going up to the rafters to look for,” Finn glances at Rey quickly, “some peace and quiet and it just burst through the door upstairs. It was really not happy about being inside. How would it even get that far upstairs in the first place?”  
Rey had an idea, but she didn’t want to throw Ben under the bus until she was sure. Either way, the Thestral got past the guards which means the school is not as protected as they thought. 

They go to Chewie’s dwelling and explain the situation. He is very upset about a mostly tame creature being harmed, not as much about the students being harmed. Chewie, Finn, and Rose haul the Thestral onto an oversize cart. Chewie instructs Rey to tell Professor Skywalker to check on the guard spells in the morning. Then he rushes into the night with his creature.  
Finn says goodbye as Rose and Rey wander back to the Gryffindor tower. Rose and Rey climb up the stairs of the women’s section. Rey is sure she’s getting stronger from all of the stairs she does every day. They stop in front of Rose’s room she shares with two other girls.  
“Rey?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I hope you never have to see a Thestral in your life.”  
“Me too.”

Rey practically falls into bed, and this time she stays there.

 

Ch 7: Be Safe, Make Good Choices

Rey doesn’t hate Defense Against the Dark Arts, it just doesn’t agree with her. So when Professor Skywalker swings the floating chalkboard around with a grey robed mechanical arm to reveal the final assessment that semester, Rey is not particularly thrilled.  
Duels. Duels against classmates. Rey does take solace in the fact that not many of the other students have done a duel before. Poe told her that they were removed from the curriculum a few years ago for the younger students because the more powerful wizards kept accidentally hurting their classmates. Dueling amicably requires more restraint from wizards with more juice, or so Poe claimed. He said dueling was removed halfway through their first year learning it so not everybody had it figured out as a thirteen year old.  
Rey hoped that she would get paired with Finn because she knows he is just as inexperienced as she. Of course just as she thinks it, Professor announces the pairings.  
“In an effort to keep the duels as friendly as possible, we’ll be pairing up in house,” he looks meaningfully at Hux who’s glaring at the back of Poe’s head, “Let’s keep things friendly while we get our bearings on the dueling platform. Even though these are defensives spells, we’re all on the same team here,” Skywalker says. Finn gives a little snort and Poe elbows him softly.  
“Alright we’ve got...” Skywalker scans the students standing in front of him and begins pacing.  
“Phasma and Connix.” This is not a surprise as the only two Hufflepuff students.  
“Rose and Poe.” Poe frowns at Rey over his shoulder. She shrugs.  
“Hux and Finn.” Both Finn and Poe tense, it will most definitely not be friendly. Skywalker stops pacing, pausing in front of Finn. Finn moves out of the way so Skywalker is appraising Rey.  
“I suppose you need a partner too. You’ll go last, you can duel whoever wins fastest.”  
Rey wants to groan in frustration. She is going to get bested no matter what. Probably by Hux she hazards. His eyes gleam with anticipation.  
“I can duel with her. We’re in the same house anyway.”  
Rey had been studiously ignoring Ben. He never participates in the few classes he shows up to, just reads his book in a chair in the back of the DADA room. It didn’t matter if she tried to forget about him, Rey could feel his presence like a source of heat in the cold.  
“No.”  
“Come on Luke, I can do it.” It always shocks Rey to hear adults called by their first names, except for Han and Chewie, but they’re not very adult-like.  
“You’re going to fail and your mother will be very upset with you.”  
That seems to rile up Ben. He stands and tosses his book on the chair. They don’t seem to care that there are seven students staring at them.  
“That’s not going to be an issue. I have control and I can prove it. I’ll even stick to Stupefy.”  
Skywalker sighs, apparently deciding it’s more trouble to get in Ben’s way.  
“Fine. Rey can you handle this?” Professor Skywalker asks, not really looking at her. Everyone else does, eager to see what she’ll chose. Rey pretends to think rationally and weigh her options. But she never could back down from a challenge. She looks directly at Ben.  
“I can handle it.”

Phasma and Connix go first. Phasma cuts an imposing figure, almost six feet tall and razor severe. Connix is mousy in comparison. Phasma renders the other girl unconscious three seconds after Skywalker says go.  
Next up is Poe and Rose. The duel starts and Rose is the first to strike. Poe deflects the shot and returns the spell with a big swingback and a little to the left of Rose’s shoulder. She easily deflects it. The next spell she throws strikes Poe in the chest. He barely lifts an arm to stop it. Rey catches a quick smile as he tumbles to the ground unconscious.  
It takes two minutes for Poe to wake up. Then it’s Finn versus Hux. Finn’s forehead is sweating as he ascends to the rectangular dueling platform. Rey doesn’t want to look but she also wants to be ready to spring into action. She clutches Poe’s hand with one hand and her duct tape wand with the other.  
It took longer than Rey thought it might mostly because Hux is showing off. Finn is immediately on the defensive when the duel begins. He holds his own for a while, deflecting Hux’s attacks with great effort. Finn even sends back a few body bind spells, but they are knocked away meters before they reach Hux, only a strand of red hair falling out of place. Eventually the rapid fire spell casting overwhelms Finn and one sneaks through. It is a Levicorpus and Finn is dragged by his ankle into the air. His wand falls out of his grasp. Hux grins vilely. Finn is shrunken, flown around, and inverted a few times before Hux eventually gets bored and spells him unconscious. He bows as if congratulating himself on a great achievement. Rey feels sick. Skywalker shakes his head and mutters ‘so much for friendly’ to himself.  
When Hux shoulers past them, Poe and Rose rush forwards to help Finn off the platform. Rey is preoccupied. Ben is already walking up the steps to the platform. He holds a hand out to her as she climbs up after him. She doesn’t take it, knowing she might get distracted. Rey just wants to hold out for a minute or two and get some shots in of her own.  
The duel commences and Ben waits for her to strike first. She tosses a Stupefy at him which he blocks easily. He tosses one back at her moving his wand obviously so she knows where to deflect.  
Something doesn’t feel right. As the duel continues this way, gently tossed spells for early deflection, Rey’s fingers start to twitch on her wand. She’s getting restless. Why am I bored, she wonders, I should be unconscious by now. Rey decides she wants a challenge worth taking.  
“Let’s go Ben,” she says under her breath so only he can hear up on the platform, “Let’s see what you can do.”  
“I don’t think that would be fair,” he says. She throws another Stupefy spell, faster this time and he deflects it with a little more effort.  
“I would rather lose to someone who is actually trying,” she says, deflecting his return spell.  
“Alright. Have it your way then,” he says. The corner of his mouth curls up and excitement zings down to Rey’s toes.  
His next spell comes fast and without warning. The duct tape on her wand strains under the impact of deflecting it. Then she is on full defensive. Jets of red light rapid fire from his wand, indicating disarming spells. Ben is using gentle spells with aggressive force  
Rey’s buns bounce on the back of her head as she whips her wand this way and that, trying to keep up. She doesn’t know how Ben’s arms are moving so fast. His wand does a little flourish at the end of each cast, evidently holding a style while she is simply swinging wildly.  
Then it changes. Rey senses her grip faltering. She breathes deeply and shuts her eyes just for a moment. Probably not the best decision in the middle of a duel. But then her arm moves of its own accord to block a spell and she opens her eyes. Her field of vision is narrower and she knows what she needs to do without really knowing what that is.  
Her movements are agile and quick as she casts a series of body binds and Stupefy spells at Ben. For once he is on the defence. It doesn’t phase him until she starts casting up in the air. He raises an eyebrow, probably wondering how her aim go so bad.  
Ben returns his volley of assault and Rey barely notices deflecting them. There’s a twang overhead and Rey gestures upwards at Ben with her chin. He looks up just as the chain snaps on the light fixture above him. Ben catches it with a levitation spell before it lands on him. This leaves him open for Rey to cast Incarcerous; a spell she doesn’t think she knows.  
Both the iron chandelier and Ben crash to the floor coiled in her conjured ropes. Still not sure if she is really piloting her body, Rey steps over the chandelier and plucks Ben’s wand from where it is rolling slowly away from him. It’s heavier than hers and the carved handle makes it easier to hold. Rey makes a show of inspecting it before returning it to Ben who is growing purple with restriction from the tightening ropes.  
He frees himself and levitates the chandelier back up to the ceiling where it reattaches itself. Ben offers his hand to shake, Rey takes it slowly, searching his face for resentment or defeat. There is only respect and something a little bit warm. They descend from the platform one after the other.  
The class is silently gawking at them. Even Hux seems a little awed. Rey goes to stand beside Poe and Finn. Ben returns to his chair at the back of the room. After a moment, Professor Skywalker starts his review of each duel, essentially tearing apart the technique of both the losers and the victors. He doesn’t mention the last duel.

When class is dismissed, Rey hangs back with Rose a moment in the DADA room.  
“I don’t get it. Ben is certainly a skilled dueler and I must have shocked a few people by not losing right away, but what was so different about that duel?” Rey asks.  
“That was insane! There is no way that was your first time dueling. And you and Ben! You guys had such chemistry even on opposite sides,” Rose says. Rey ignores that last part.  
“I honestly don’t know how I made it happen,” Rey says, eyebrows drawing together.  
“Dude, that spell you did in the end, I’m pretty sure we don’t learn any conjuring dueling spells until next semester,” Rose continues.  
“You mean the Incarcerous? I must have heard about it in the workshop or something.”  
“Oh so that’s what that was. I couldn’t tell which conjuring spell,” Rose says.  
“I was yelling pretty loud, you must have misheard,” Rey says, a little confused. Rose stops walking towards the door and looks up at Rey sharply.  
“Rey. You weren’t saying anything at all.”  
“What do you mean,” Rey asks, “I was using spells the whole duel.”  
Rose shakes her head and speaks slowly as if Rey is willfully not listening.  
“No you weren’t. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop for like that whole ten minutes. I could practically hear Finn shaking from his duel.”  
“What about when we talked in the middle? I told Ben to try harder.”  
“Oh so that’s what you guys were doing,” Rose says as if it all makes sense, “Yeah there was this whole bit in the middle where you guys just stared at each other then started going ham.”  
“Odd,” is all Rey can respond. Her brain is moving a mile a minute. Since when could she do non - verbal spells? Her magic had improved since she arrived. Rey had a feeling it wasn’t thanks to Professor Skywalker’s tutelage.  
“Anyway, I’m just glad I got to see Hux almost wet his pants in jealousy. My god, for a kid with such rich parents you’d think he’d want to chill out,” Rose says. 

Rose chats on their way to their next class. The halls are packed with students jostling to stay close to their friends. It’s Muggle Studies next and Rey finds herself dragging her feet. They pass alongside a courtyard with a garden and Rey catches a glimpse of a dark figure leaning on a tree, trying to look casual.  
Ben inclines his head and nods her over. Rose is talking about her dress for the Yule ball and how she just knows Finn is going to ask her.  
“I’ll catch you in a moment,” Rey says, interrupting Rose. Rose cranes her head to see what Rey is looking at. When she spots Ben she gives Rey a literal wink and a nudge.  
“Be safe, make good choooices,” Rose sings over her shoulder as she continues on. Rey hopes none of the multitude of students within earshot are paying attention to her.  
She slips between stone pillars into the courtyard full of bare branches. Ben fidgets with the hem of his all black sweater.  
“Congratulations on your win,” he says, looking down at her as she draws closer. A few dark locks of hair fall in front of his face and Rey very much so wants to brush them back. She grips the strap of her messenger bag instead.  
“I am not quite sure how that happened, to be honest. Are you sure you weren’t going easy?”  
“I was a first but when you asked for more, I was really trying. I mean I didn’t want to hurt you so I suppose I wasn’t dueling flat out. But I was honestly surprised by the chandelier. You won that duel fair and square,” Ben says. Rey’s cheeks grow warm with his words.  
“It was a spur of the moment,” she says. They’re standing very close together but she can’t seem to care that their spot in courtyard is visible to anyone walking by. Ben breaks eye contact and looks down at his hands. Rey takes his silence as an opportunity to change the subject.  
“You wouldn’t happen to know why a Thestral was terrorizing the school the other day, would you?” Rey asks in a saccinine voice. Ben’s eyebrows shoot up for a second then he chuckles.  
“Of course you know about that.”  
“It’s probably unavoidable that I know your business considering our situation,” Rey says with a lighthearted laugh. They both appear to remember the last moment in his training room at the same time because he coughs uncomfortably and she rushes to continue.  
“Did you translocate it here?” she asks. He nods once.  
“Why on earth would you choose a Thestral?” Rey exclaims. He raises his hands in defence.  
“I thought they were tame and no one would see them,” he says sheepishly.  
“Well they’re probably tame until some wacko plops them up eight flights of stairs! And, for your information, an angry, flying, invisible horse is a lot harder to take down than, say, a squirrel,” she says. Ben is starting to look truly guilty and he pushes his hair back with a hand.  
“I was going to deal with it myself, but I turned my back for a minute and it was gone,” he says. Rey starts poking him in the chest with her finger.  
“You are so lucky Rose took it down before it ate someone. That master plan of yours probably needs you to not get expelled from the school,” she says.  
“That is private information.”  
“Well I wouldn’t mind leaving it private except for I keep popping up next to you whenever I close my eyes,” Rey says, daring him to argue with her about it again.  
“I bet my mother’s doing this,” Ben mutters as he rubs a hand over his face.  
“Whatever this is, sleep haunting, my magic going haywire, our duel, I just want an explanation,” Rey says, gesturing between them. Ben starts fiddling with the hem of his sweater again.  
“Have you got any plans next weekend?”  
“What?” Rey says. he gives her whiplash with the change of subject  
“It’s the Yule Ball,” he says. Rey recognized the name, but Finn and Poe avoid discussing it. She asked what it was once and they looked so sad that she never brought it up again.  
“Well I would go with Finn and Poe, but I don’t think they want to so I’m not likely-”  
“Go with me,” he blurts.  
Rey blinks blankly at him. Why would her to go with him? They aren’t exactly friends, or even friendly for that matter. Ben’s face starts to close off. She never could back down from a challenge.  
“Alright,” she says.  
“Alright?”  
“I’ll go with you, unless you take it back.”  
Ben smiles and it’s lopsided and shy and good. Rey smiles at him too. In the back of her mind she knows that she should be scared of what he can do and what he might be made to do. But until all that gets in the way, she wants to stand in a garden with a boy and grin at eachother like idiots.

 

Ch 8:Broom Broom, I’m in Me Mum’s Car

The Yule Ball is held in the Great Hall. The dining tables have been moved to the edges of the room and floating candles flicker through the colour spectrum. Rey notices the food before any of this.  
The tables hold platters of chocolate and cake and cheese. There are bowls of pudding and mousse and jelly. There are vats of butterbeer and fruit punch and-  
“Rey.”  
Rey pretends she wasn’t just trying to rank which food to eat first based on density.  
“Yes?”  
“Do you want to go in, or do you want to block the door for another five minutes?” Ben says. She rolls her eyes and enters her first school dance with Ben Solo on her arm. 

Getting ready took longer than she thought it would. When Rose offered to do Rey’s makeup, she thought it would take a maximum of twenty minutes. Two hours before the ball was set to start she was sat in a chair and smeared with creams and powders until she looked like a doll version of herself. It was a pretty doll who looks good in a red satin dress. Finn and Poe helped her pick out the dress in Diagon Alley one weekend. It’s simple with a fitted waist, straps that curve into a gentle v, and what Rose calls a “poofy” skirt.  
Ben met her in the Gryffindor lounge. He was wearing a black suit and reading on a couch when Rey carefully picked her way down into the room. She liked how peaceful he looked, even with his tall frame hanging off the ends of the couch. He looked up at her when her heel clicked on the stone floor.  
She’s hadn’t seen that particular expression from him before, open and surprised in the best way. When she took his arm, warmth filled her insides. It was good to have something to hold onto in Rose’s high heels. It was good to have Ben.

Now they make their way over to the side of the hall with the food. Rey feels the eyes of her classmates on her and Ben. She knows they might seem an odd pair; the rebellious professor’s son and the dumb new girl, but she doesn’t really care.  
Ben waits patiently for her to sample every dish. He even attempts small talk. It’s a valiant effort, speaking about OWLs and classes, but it’s hard to hold a conversation with someone who refuses to talk with her mouth full.  
Finn, Rose, and Poe walk over and Rey waves enthusiastically. Finn is wearing a wonderful purple suit and Rose has a pink tulle dress. Poe looks especially heroic in a classic black suit and his hair styled up. The trio came as a group, mostly to keep from disappointing Rose and a little bit so Finn and Poe could be together without causing a scandal. Rey thinks that if Finn and Poe can stand up to the entire Slytherin house over a quidditch match then they should be able to hold hands at a dance, but she also knows that Finn would never want to call Poe under fire.  
“Solo I see you’ve tricked our girl into going out with you, quite a feat,” Poe says and claps Ben on the shoulder. Ben looks a little frightened and a lot stunned. Rey makes to mess up Poe’s hair and he spins quickly out of her reach.  
“Watch it Dameron,” she says, wiggling her fingers threateningly.  
Just as Ben snaps out of his shock and starts to make a comment Rey is sure will not help his case, a voice is amplified over the chatter.  
“Welcome to the Yule Ball students!” Professor Organa is on the platform at the front of the room, voice carried by magic. “This night is a reward for your hard work this semester,” she spots Ben leaning against a table and stops short. Professor Organa stares for a moment with a wistful look, then clears her throat and continues. “You kids deserve some fun so enjoy the festivities and don’t stir up any trouble you can’t get away with!”  
The music is loud and students in their finery immediately crowd the dance floor in the centre of the hall. Rey is surprised that it’s pop music and not gregorian chants or Bach which she automatically assumed based on the castle they live in.  
Rose drags them all into the centre of the dance floor. Rey is pulled along by Poe and she pulls Ben with her. It’s not like school dances sheès seen in teen movies. There’s a lot less space and less organization. It’s fun though, despite the growing pain in her feet from jumping along to a few upbeat pop songs.  
Rey is pleasantly surprised that Ben doesn’t sit in the corner of the room with a book and a scowl. He isn’t exactly beaming but he makes an effort to talk to Poe when they take a break from the dance floor during “Wannabe”. Rey and Finn and Rose sing at the top of their lungs and take turns choosing a ridiculous early 2000’s dance move for each other.  
The songs eventually transition down into a slower tempo. The students pair off into pairs. Rey is perfectly content to slow dance platonically with Rose and Finn, but she’s lost sight of Finn and Rose has excused herself to the ladies room.  
“I suppose this is part of the deal,” she says to Ben who materializes out of the throng.  
“Only if you want to,” he replies. She looks up at him. He is surveying the dancing couples and trying to seem disinterested. Rey grabs his hand and hauls him between the pairs of dancers, giving Hux and Phasma a wide berth. She tries to loop her arms around his neck like some of the other girls are clutching their partners.  
“I hope you are better at this than first impressions,” she mutters. He laughs softly and moves one of her hands to his shoulder and the other clasped in his own.  
“I make no promises.”  
And they’re moving. Not the gentle swaying everyone else seems to be doing, but actually leaving a square metre radius. Ben starts with small steps and pulls Rey gently by the lower back. The music swells, or maybe it’s just Rey. They spin as they step, Ben deftly weaving them around the dance floor.  
Rey doesn’t really understand how she hasn’t stepped on his foot or tripped. It doesn’t really matter. They move together as a unit, just like their duel, but not in conflict; in harmony. She feels where he’s stepping next and melts along with him. He spins her gracefully as they reach the edge of the dance floor then pulls her close again. There’s a little smile in the corner of his mouth. Not the one when he’s winning a fight, not the one when he saw her in the lounge in her dress. It’s something new and a little bit shy.  
The song seems to be coming to an end and Ben steers them further away from the other students. They stop moving, Rey’s eyes locked on his. It’s curious that someone who wears hostility like a uniform can have such kind brown eyes.  
There’s movement in the corner of her sight. Rey looks past Ben, barely spotting the source. Up in the rafters far above the crowd are two silhouettes, swaying gently in time with the music.

The dance is over at quarter to midnight. Professor Organa wishes the students a safe night. Finn and Poe rush with Rose back to the Gryffindor tower to the party Poe is hosting in the lounge. Rey turns to invite Ben to go with them but he is already speaking.  
“Would you like to see something?” he asks. At first she thinks he’s going to make a joke about nudes but he continues hurriedly, “It’s outside so I understand if you want to go with your friends instead,” he says, prepared to accept her rejection.  
“I’d love to, just let me change my shoes and pick up a coat,” she says with a little more enthusiasm than in strictly necessary. She is genuinely curious what it could be, but she doesn’t want to have him shut down on her. Ben’s eyebrows raise but he doesn’t say anything further as they reach the Gryffindor tower.  
“I’ll wait here,” he declares and crosses his arms, leaning against the wall beside the painting entrance.  
“Ben Solo if you pull out a book I will climb out of here and teach you some manners,” the lady in the painting scolds. He turns to angrily retort and the door swings open, almost catching him square in the face. Rey laughs under her breath and hurries through the door.  
She manages to avoid most of the familiar Gryffindor students on her way to and from her room. A few people wave and she waves back, pleased that she can call some of these students her friends. Rey has traded Rose’s heels for her studier boots and picked up a long brown wool coat, one of her few possessions from Jakku.  
“Where are we off to?” she asks Ben when she emerges. The lady in the painting is in the middle of telling him how to ‘treat a woman’ and he looks relieved to see Rey. He has also acquired a black peacoat in the time she was upstairs.  
“Would you accept a surprise?”  
“Nope. You have to sell it,” she teases. He takes hold of her hand. He is warmer than her and she subconsciously walks a little closer.  
“Fine,” he puts on a tacky tour guide voice, “You’re in luck! One night only! Meteor shower! Once in a millenia experience!”  
Rey cackles and Ben returns to deadpan. They walk with shoulders touching towards the meadow where they argued earlier that year. Rey is glad of her boots. The grass brushes her bare calves just below her coat.  
They reach Chewie’s hut and Rey wonders if they are going to go inside for a visit. Ben lets go of her hand to grab something from under the front porch.  
It’s a broom. It’s a faded grey colour but even Rey can tell it’s kept up. Ben sets the broom horizontally and glares at it until it suspends in air.  
“Can you even fly that thing?”  
“You’ll just have to find out,” he says cryptically, “Do you trust me?”  
Considering their past interactions she probably could have afforded a little hesitation and rational thought. She responds reflexively, not entirely understanding what she’s saying.  
“Of course I trust you.”  
He climbs on and offers a hand to help her. Rey adjusts her dress and coat.  
“Ready. You better not drop-”  
They shoot into the sky. Rey lets out a surprised yelp and scrambles to get a good grip on his middle. Her eyes are shut tight, but Ben is relaxed in front of her so she cracks her eyes open.  
They are in the stars. Rey doesn’t think anyone has flown this high over Hogwarts, the flying bylaws and plain common sense prohibit it. She suspects Ben has a habit of disregarding school rules. He probably senses her death grip on his jacket and he dips them lower.  
They rocket down and Rey moves her head onto his shoulder to avoid his hair whipping in her face. This broom is fast. Oddly, it’s much faster than Poe’s which he said is the top of the line new release this year. They skim the surface of the flat lake and it’s like gliding across a mirror of stars.  
Rey dips her toe to the surface just to see if it’s still water. The spray soaks them both and Ben grumbles at her to cut it out. He brings them to a stop in the middle of the lake.  
“Are we going swimming? It’s a little chilly don’t you think?” she says.  
“Just.. hang on a minute.”  
Ben reaches into the pocket of his coat and produces his wand and a small square of cloth. He leans over and touches the tip of his wand to the surface of the lake. They silently watch as the ripples from the touch harden in place. The lake flash freezes from shore to shore. Ben frowns and inspects his wand. Rey reaches a tentative foot down and finds the ice supports her weight. Ben shrugs and helps her off the broom.  
Ben takes the square of cloth and tosses it in the air. The dark sky makes it hard to see exactly what happens, but when it comes back down, it’s a massive fleece blanket. Ben lays it out on the lake and gestures for Rey to sit.  
“This is all very impressive, but what are we doing out here?” she asks.  
“Just a minute,” he says, dropping down beside her.  
As if on cue, the moment Ben sits beside Rey, the sky lights up. White streaks dash across the sky. The flash frozen lake reflects their paths in warped and bending form. The stars are warring and breaking and falling.  
Ben’s shoulder bumps Rey’s. His hair shines from the light of the meteors. Rey can see her own wide eyed gaze reflected in his eyes. She twines her small fingers with his large hand.  
He leans down and she tilts up and when their lips meet in the middle, Rey can feel the sky in her veins. She can almost hear the sizzle of space dust burning up in the atmosphere as she tangles her hands in his hair and pushes him down on the blanket. His hands are warm around her waist.  
Eventually the sky dims to black once more and Rey comes up for air. Ben watches her quietly without anticipation. Rey feels a little shy then scolds herself.  
“Where did you learn to dance,” Rey blurts in to the still air. The corner of Ben’s mouth lifts in a half grin.  
“It was my father’s idea, believe it or not. He always wished he was better at dancing when he would accompany my mother to Ministry balls. He put e in dance lessons so I ‘wouldn’t look a fool’ when I grew up,” Ben looks away, “But that was a long time ago.”  
“I had a nice time tonight,”Rey says softly. Ben looks at her like she strung the stars.  
“Yeah me too.”

They gather up the blanket which Ben tosses into a pocket square once more. He tries to help Rey onto the broom over the slick ice but then slips himself. She laughs loudly and he tells her to cut it out with a small smile.  
On the broom, Ben gives his wand a shake and a distrustful glare. He touches the tip to the ice and with a crack, the ice breaks apart and melts.  
They fly into the night, Rey rests her cheek against his shoulder blade. Soon they reach the Gryffindor tower. Rey hops onto the slanted roof with ease. Ben is staring into the space beside her, lost in thought.  
At a loss of what to say, she mumbles, “See you around Solo,” and turns to leave.  
“Rey wait,” he says.  
“Yes?”  
“I just want you to know that I really like you and I hope that someday soon it can be like this for us all the time.”  
Ben looks downright forlorn and Rey holds herself back from pushing the subject. Instead, she lowers his broom until they’re eye level and brings a hand to his cheek.  
He kisses her more gently than she thought he was capable of.

When Rey drops into her room, she keeps walking out the door. Tonight, she is going to save Ben Solo.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up in the comments if anyone wants the rest of this (I have plans but no motivation).


End file.
